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Parents' perceptions of their 1-6-year-old children's pain
Päivi M Kankkunen1, Katri M Vehviläinen-Julkunen, Anna-Maija K Pietilä
1Department of Nursing Science, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, 70211 Kuopio, Finland. paivi.kankkunen@uku.fi
Insights
Parents' perceptions of children's postoperative pain influence home care. Providing adequate information to parents before hospital discharge is crucial for effective pain management and reducing children's future healthcare fears.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Pain Management
- Parental Perceptions in Healthcare
- Postoperative Care
Background:
- Parental perceptions significantly impact how children's postoperative pain is managed at home.
- Understanding these perceptions is key to improving pediatric pain alleviation strategies post-discharge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate and describe parental perceptions of pain in children aged 1-6 years.
- To explore how these perceptions relate to children's actual pain experiences.
Main Methods:
- A questionnaire study involving 201 mothers and 114 fathers of children who underwent day surgery.
- Utilized Visual Analogue Scale for pain intensity and Parents' Postoperative Pain Measure (PPPM) for pain behaviors.
Main Results:
- Most parents believe adults are responsible for alleviating child's pain and that this reduces future healthcare fears.
- A majority perceived postoperative pain as decreasing daily or inherent to surgery.
- Parents' perceptions correlated with children's pain intensity and behaviors.
Conclusions:
- Parental pain perceptions are linked to children's postoperative pain levels at home.
- Educating parents on children's pain before discharge is vital for effective home pain management.
- Addressing parental expectations, such as higher pain tolerance in boys, requires attention.
Background Of The Study:
Parents' perceptions of children's pain may have influence on how children's postoperative pain is alleviated at home after discharge from hospital.
Purpose Of The Study:
To describe parents' perceptions of 1-6-year-old children's pain.
Methods:
Mothers (N=201) and fathers (N=114) whose child had undergone a day surgery in 10 Finnish central hospitals between October 2000 and September 2001 filled in a questionnaire including statements of pain perceptions, a Visual Analogue Scale to assess children's pain intensity and Parents' Postoperative Pain Measure (PPPM) to measure children's pain behaviours.
Results:
Most of the parents suggested that adults have the responsibility to alleviate child's pain and that alleviation of child's postoperative pain prevents the child's fears during future visits in child welfare clinic. However, majority of parents described that postoperative pain decreases every day or that pain is always a part of surgery. Differences in parents' perceptions were found by both parents' and children's background variables. Parents' perceptions of children's pain were related to children's pain intensity and pain behaviours after surgery.
Conclusions:
Parents' perceptions of children's pain were related to children's pain after surgery at home. Adequate information of children's pain should be provided to the parents before discharge to promote children's pain alleviation at home. Special attention should be paid on parents' expectations of boys' higher pain tolerance.